June 3-4, 2017 Timberline

This was the last weekend of using my Timberline Season Pass. There is a summer pass that is expensive, really expensive – $900. It's cheaper to fly to Argentina and Chile and ski the Andes/Patagonia like we did for a two months a several years ago. OK, I had 2 days of different weather and different ski conditions.

June 3, Saturday: A warm day that started at 8am with skiing on perfect corn. The terrain parks opened at 10am and it was worth arriving at the start. The terrain had been “salted” and there were big jumps with fun skiing around them, while looking over my shoulder to see if someone was flying over the jumps. All the groomed runs off Stormin' Norman and the Magic Mile were salted. The Palmer area is big and the sun made it nice and soft. This was the day for my fat skis. The area was full of Ski Patrollers from the West Coast areas on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday for a “teaching event”.

June 4, Sunday: A system arrived overnight, and the day started overcast with a stiff wind. I used my regular skis with the sharp edges. It was a groomer day at the start. The groomers were fast and the racing teams were happy. But, I missed the softer terrain. OK, so I'm spoiled...

I had the same idea - last day of the pass on Sunday (6+ months of skiing, 2 resorts - has to be one of the better season pass deals out there). I skied Palmer until near closing and then skinned up to the crater for one last long Mt. Hood run. Pleasantly surprised to find good corn snow all the way down to the lodge - including forays off Illumination Rock and into upper Zigzag canyon. There was enough sun exposure to make the smooth upper slopes ski well, but seemingly enough wind to also keep the lower part from getting sticky, pretty rare in my experience. Zigzag Glacier is in great shape for skiing right now.